Melt Shop Expansion Complete

American Cast Iron Pipe Co. (ACIPCO), Birmingham, Ala., has recently completed an expansion of its melting capabilities in Birmingham.

According to a report from Industrial Information Resources, the $80 million melt shop expansion at the Birmingham iron and steel pipe mill began one and half years ago and features the addition of a fifth electric arc furnace (EAF) at the plant.

The company has begun operating the new furnace with experimental melts, and is expected to be up to full production shortly, according to the published report. The melting expansion comes less than two years after the startup of a new pipe mill in Columbia, S.C., owned by ACIPCO subsidiary American SpiralWeld Pipe Co. The Columbia pipe mill started operations in 2000.

Employee-owned ACIPCO makes cast ductile iron pipe and steel tubing for the waterworks, capital goods and energy industries. According to the company’s Web site, www.acipco.com, the Birmingham plant may be the largest iron pipe casting plant in the world. It is located on a 2,100-acre site that measures three miles in length, with almost 60 acres of plant under roof.

In its Jan. 2002 issue, Fortune magazine named employee-owned ACIPCO as one of “The 100 Best Companies To Work For In America.”